WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.280 Welcome in. Whether you are prepping for a big 00:00:04.280 --> 00:00:06.139 meeting trying to catch up on the world or you 00:00:06.139 --> 00:00:08.939 are just, you know, insanely curious about how 00:00:08.939 --> 00:00:12.019 systems work, you are in the right place. Absolutely. 00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:14.099 You are the learner and we know exactly what 00:00:14.099 --> 00:00:16.859 you want. A quick, thorough and structured download 00:00:16.859 --> 00:00:19.679 of fascinating information without that heavy 00:00:19.679 --> 00:00:22.559 feeling of information overload. Nobody wants 00:00:22.559 --> 00:00:25.550 that. Right. So today we have a deep dive that 00:00:25.550 --> 00:00:27.750 takes something seemingly invisible and shows 00:00:27.750 --> 00:00:30.129 how it can turn an entire system upside down. 00:00:30.570 --> 00:00:33.409 We're looking at a simple blank option on a ballot 00:00:33.409 --> 00:00:35.450 paper. Yeah, that's a great topic. Specifically, 00:00:35.649 --> 00:00:37.810 we're diving into the Wikipedia article on none 00:00:37.810 --> 00:00:40.329 of the above in India, which is commonly known 00:00:40.329 --> 00:00:43.289 as Noda. Our mission today is to unpack how this 00:00:43.289 --> 00:00:47.030 single button transformed from a basically a 00:00:47.030 --> 00:00:50.130 basic tool for voter secrecy into a really powerful 00:00:50.130 --> 00:00:52.570 and sometimes chaotic instrument of democratic 00:00:52.570 --> 00:00:55.030 descent across the world's largest democracy. 00:00:55.270 --> 00:00:58.060 Okay, let's unpack this. It really is a fascinating 00:00:58.060 --> 00:01:02.859 journey. If you picture a bustling Indian election 00:01:02.859 --> 00:01:06.040 polling station, you know, filled with long lines 00:01:06.040 --> 00:01:09.099 of voters and the hum of electronic voting machines, 00:01:09.340 --> 00:01:11.760 you usually think about people actively choosing 00:01:11.760 --> 00:01:15.099 a leader. Picking someone. Exactly. The entire 00:01:15.099 --> 00:01:17.900 architecture of an election is built around selection. 00:01:18.280 --> 00:01:20.739 But to understand NODA, we have to look at the 00:01:20.739 --> 00:01:23.079 power of rejection. And that takes us back to 00:01:23.079 --> 00:01:26.640 a foundational moment in 2013. Court case. Yes. 00:01:26.859 --> 00:01:29.319 There was a landmark Supreme Court judgment in 00:01:29.319 --> 00:01:32.859 a case called PUCL versus Union of India. The 00:01:32.859 --> 00:01:34.939 People's Union for Civil Liberties filed a writ 00:01:34.939 --> 00:01:37.959 petition, and the Supreme Court ultimately directed 00:01:37.959 --> 00:01:40.519 the Election Commission of India to provide a 00:01:40.519 --> 00:01:42.680 none of the above button on all voting machines. 00:01:43.019 --> 00:01:45.140 So if the machinery was already working to elect 00:01:45.140 --> 00:01:47.879 leaders, what was the Supreme Court actually 00:01:47.879 --> 00:01:51.260 hoping to achieve by adding a button that essentially 00:01:51.260 --> 00:01:54.120 does nothing? Well, the court recognized a fundamental 00:01:54.120 --> 00:01:56.280 gap in the democratic process. They wanted to 00:01:56.280 --> 00:01:58.140 ensure that voters who made the effort to come 00:01:58.140 --> 00:01:59.840 all the way to the polling booth, but decided 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:01.900 they just didn't want to vote for any of the 00:02:01.900 --> 00:02:04.219 candidates presented to them, could exercise 00:02:04.219 --> 00:02:07.000 their right to reject everyone. And crucially, 00:02:07.420 --> 00:02:09.639 they needed to be able to do this while maintaining 00:02:09.639 --> 00:02:14.319 the absolute secrecy of their vote. expressing 00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:17.000 dissatisfaction might have meant abstaining entirely, 00:02:17.060 --> 00:02:19.539 right? Exactly. Which doesn't leave a measurable 00:02:19.539 --> 00:02:21.539 record of dissent. It just looks like you didn't 00:02:21.539 --> 00:02:24.340 care if to show up. But the Supreme Court had 00:02:24.340 --> 00:02:28.340 a much bigger, a more ambitious goal here. They 00:02:28.340 --> 00:02:30.240 observed that for the proper governance of the 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:32.699 country, it is essential that people of high 00:02:32.699 --> 00:02:36.080 moral and ethical values are chosen as representatives. 00:02:36.199 --> 00:02:38.199 They were essentially creating a legal mechanism 00:02:38.199 --> 00:02:41.099 to force better behavior. They explicitly hoped 00:02:41.099 --> 00:02:43.659 that the nota button would compel political parties 00:02:43.659 --> 00:02:45.879 to nominate what they called sound candidates. 00:02:46.080 --> 00:02:48.460 Oh, I see. The logic was that if parties saw 00:02:48.460 --> 00:02:51.000 a massive spike in voters actively choosing to 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:53.719 reject the entire slate, the sheer embarrassment 00:02:53.719 --> 00:02:56.900 and the quantifiable metric of public anger would 00:02:56.900 --> 00:02:59.460 force them to start fielding corrupt or ineffective 00:02:59.460 --> 00:03:02.620 politicians. That is a massive philosophical 00:03:02.620 --> 00:03:04.849 weight to put on a single blank button. I mean, 00:03:04.849 --> 00:03:07.169 it was first rolled out in the 2013 elections 00:03:07.169 --> 00:03:10.629 across four states, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Rajasthan 00:03:10.629 --> 00:03:12.990 and Madhya Pradesh, as well as the union territory 00:03:12.990 --> 00:03:16.189 of Delhi. And figuring out how to visually represent 00:03:16.189 --> 00:03:18.949 that philosophy on a ballot was quite a challenge, 00:03:19.090 --> 00:03:21.150 wasn't it? It definitely was. Because our sources 00:03:21.150 --> 00:03:23.050 mentioned the official symbol wasn't actually 00:03:23.050 --> 00:03:25.469 created by the National Institute of Design until 00:03:25.469 --> 00:03:29.370 2015. Yeah, that gap between 2013 and 2015 led 00:03:29.370 --> 00:03:31.729 to some incredibly creative suggestions from 00:03:31.729 --> 00:03:35.229 the public. I can only imagine. symbol was standardized, 00:03:35.710 --> 00:03:37.990 there were actual serious demands submitted to 00:03:37.990 --> 00:03:40.689 the election commission to use a donkey as the 00:03:40.689 --> 00:03:43.550 official symbol for nota. A donkey. I cannot 00:03:43.550 --> 00:03:46.129 get over the donkey detail. Just imagine walking 00:03:46.129 --> 00:03:49.150 into a voting booth to register your deeply held 00:03:49.150 --> 00:03:51.710 philosophical democratic dissent and you are 00:03:51.710 --> 00:03:53.849 pressing a button next to a picture of a donkey. 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:56.300 It's pretty on the nose. It is absolutely brilliant. 00:03:56.520 --> 00:03:58.360 It perfectly captures the frustration voters 00:03:58.360 --> 00:04:00.860 feel when they look at a terrible list of candidates. 00:04:01.180 --> 00:04:03.639 It definitely highlights the public's mood at 00:04:03.639 --> 00:04:06.680 the time. But setting the humor aside, the reality 00:04:06.680 --> 00:04:08.719 of how NODA function in those early days was 00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:11.280 actually quite strict. The Election Commission 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:15.240 of India, or the ECI, instituted firm rules that 00:04:15.240 --> 00:04:18.560 severely limited NODA's initial power. How so? 00:04:18.959 --> 00:04:22.060 They clarified that even in an extreme scenario 00:04:22.060 --> 00:04:24.699 where Noda receives the absolute highest number 00:04:24.699 --> 00:04:27.680 of votes, the human candidate who secures the 00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:29.620 largest number of votes among the contestants 00:04:29.620 --> 00:04:31.899 is still declared the winner. Wait, let me make 00:04:31.899 --> 00:04:33.899 sure I'm grasping the scale of this limitation. 00:04:34.399 --> 00:04:37.339 So Noda could... theoretically get a million 00:04:37.339 --> 00:04:39.759 votes. The human candidate could get 10 votes 00:04:39.759 --> 00:04:42.120 and that human candidate still wins the seat 00:04:42.120 --> 00:04:44.319 and takes power. Your human still wins. Wow. 00:04:44.439 --> 00:04:46.720 The logic at the time was focused on maintaining 00:04:46.720 --> 00:04:49.339 government stability rather than allowing a blank 00:04:49.339 --> 00:04:52.980 space to just stall the democratic process. Furthermore, 00:04:53.560 --> 00:04:55.819 votes pulled for NODA do not count when determining 00:04:55.819 --> 00:04:57.939 the forfeiture of a candidate's security deposit. 00:04:58.040 --> 00:05:01.399 No, the deposit they paid a run. Exactly. Normally, 00:05:01.699 --> 00:05:03.819 if a candidate fails to secure a certain minimum 00:05:03.819 --> 00:05:05.899 percentage of votes, they lose that financial 00:05:05.899 --> 00:05:08.519 deposit. Noda votes were excluded from that math, 00:05:08.699 --> 00:05:10.439 protecting candidates financially, even if they 00:05:10.439 --> 00:05:13.319 were widely rejected. And while Noda was introduced 00:05:13.319 --> 00:05:15.620 for the Rajasabha, the upper house of India's 00:05:15.620 --> 00:05:18.800 parliament, in 2014, the Supreme Court actually 00:05:18.800 --> 00:05:21.459 scrapped the Noda option for those specific elections 00:05:21.459 --> 00:05:24.300 in 2018. It sounds like it started as a paper 00:05:24.300 --> 00:05:28.089 tiger. It was a quantifiable metric of dissatisfaction, 00:05:28.329 --> 00:05:31.170 a way to vent, but it had absolutely no legal 00:05:31.170 --> 00:05:33.350 teeth to actually block a candidate from taking 00:05:33.350 --> 00:05:35.790 office. Initially, yes, it was basically a suggestion 00:05:35.790 --> 00:05:38.189 box masquerading as a ballot option. Here's where 00:05:38.189 --> 00:05:40.790 it gets really interesting, though, because even 00:05:40.790 --> 00:05:43.790 without those legal teeth, voters started using 00:05:43.790 --> 00:05:46.430 nota in ways that completely shocked the political 00:05:46.430 --> 00:05:49.970 establishment. When nobody wins big, the numbers 00:05:49.970 --> 00:05:52.250 are just staggering to look at. Let's unpack 00:05:52.250 --> 00:05:55.850 the 2024 Luxaba election. Oh, the indoor election 00:05:55.850 --> 00:05:58.610 is a perfect example. Yeah. For context, the 00:05:58.610 --> 00:06:01.009 Lok Sabha is the massive lower house of India's 00:06:01.009 --> 00:06:03.709 bicameral parliament. So this is the major national 00:06:03.709 --> 00:06:07.089 stage. In that specific election, Noda pulled 00:06:07.089 --> 00:06:10.550 in over two lakh votes. That is more than 200 00:06:10.550 --> 00:06:15.449 ,000 people. It captures 16 .28 % of the vote 00:06:15.449 --> 00:06:18.339 share and literally came in second place. That 00:06:18.339 --> 00:06:21.180 indoor result is the all -time record, and it 00:06:21.180 --> 00:06:23.779 serves as a fascinating case study in voter behavior. 00:06:24.439 --> 00:06:26.540 It was reportedly driven by the last -minute 00:06:26.540 --> 00:06:29.079 withdrawal of the main opposition candidate. 00:06:29.300 --> 00:06:31.379 Right. They just pulled out. Yes. And this sudden 00:06:31.379 --> 00:06:33.879 exit left a massive block of voters completely 00:06:33.879 --> 00:06:35.819 stranded without their preferred choice. But 00:06:35.819 --> 00:06:37.759 instead of just staying home and ignoring the 00:06:37.759 --> 00:06:40.699 election, over 200 ,000 of them marched to the 00:06:40.699 --> 00:06:43.300 polls and aggressively chose NODA. They turned 00:06:43.300 --> 00:06:45.819 a lack of options into a loud, undeniable statement. 00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:49.329 That is wild. an isolated incident. In 2019, 00:06:49.689 --> 00:06:53.089 in Gopalganj, Bihar, over 51 ,000 voters chose 00:06:53.089 --> 00:06:55.970 Nodo, which was 5 % of the total vote. We also 00:06:55.970 --> 00:06:59.230 have the 2014 Nilgiris election in Tamil Nadu, 00:06:59.629 --> 00:07:01.410 which might be one of the most striking examples. 00:07:02.189 --> 00:07:05.970 Noda garnered over 46 ,000 votes, capturing nearly 00:07:05.970 --> 00:07:08.949 5 % of the cast votes. But what makes this specific 00:07:08.949 --> 00:07:12.149 race incredible is that Noda actually beat out 00:07:12.149 --> 00:07:15.110 a high profile candidate who was accused in the 00:07:15.110 --> 00:07:18.430 infamous 2G spectrum corruption scam. Yes. That 00:07:18.430 --> 00:07:21.069 is a massive national scandal. And the voters 00:07:21.069 --> 00:07:23.589 in that district walked into the booth, looked 00:07:23.589 --> 00:07:26.029 at a powerful politician tied to that scandal, 00:07:26.509 --> 00:07:29.160 and chose a blank button instead. It demonstrates 00:07:29.160 --> 00:07:31.720 that voters are highly aware of the ethical standing 00:07:31.720 --> 00:07:34.620 of their candidates. But the impact of NODA isn't 00:07:34.620 --> 00:07:36.839 always about coming in second or third with tens 00:07:36.839 --> 00:07:39.420 of thousands of votes. Sometimes its true power 00:07:39.420 --> 00:07:41.480 is the invisible weight it throws around in a 00:07:41.480 --> 00:07:43.860 fiercely tight race. The silent spoiler effect. 00:07:44.139 --> 00:07:45.879 What's fascinating here is the concept of the 00:07:45.879 --> 00:07:48.060 victory margin. Let's look at the Manipur Desh 00:07:48.060 --> 00:07:50.879 assembly elections in 2018. Across the entire 00:07:50.879 --> 00:07:52.819 state, the difference in the total vote share 00:07:52.819 --> 00:07:55.360 between the two major national parties, the BJP 00:07:55.360 --> 00:08:00.399 and Congress, was a razor thin 0 .1%. 0 .1%. 00:08:00.399 --> 00:08:03.300 It was an incredibly close battle for control. 00:08:03.899 --> 00:08:06.930 Yet in that exact same election, NODA captured 00:08:06.930 --> 00:08:10.470 a vote share of 1 .4 percent. So the amount of 00:08:10.470 --> 00:08:13.649 people who voted for nobody was 14 times larger 00:08:13.649 --> 00:08:16.649 than the gap between the two major parties fighting 00:08:16.649 --> 00:08:19.230 for control of the state. Exactly. And if we 00:08:19.230 --> 00:08:21.930 zoom in on specific local battles within that 00:08:21.930 --> 00:08:24.810 state election, the impact becomes even more 00:08:24.810 --> 00:08:28.300 stark. Take the South Gualior constituency during 00:08:28.300 --> 00:08:31.420 those same 2018 elections. The sitting member 00:08:31.420 --> 00:08:34.159 of the Legislative Assembly, Narayan Singh Khushwa, 00:08:34.500 --> 00:08:38.980 lost his seat by a mere 121 votes. Just 121 votes 00:08:38.980 --> 00:08:40.960 decided the leadership of that constituency. 00:08:41.159 --> 00:08:44.500 Yes. And in that very constituency, Noda captured 00:08:44.500 --> 00:08:48.360 1 ,550 votes. Just imagine the sheer power of 00:08:48.360 --> 00:08:51.240 those 1 ,550 voters if they had just stayed home 00:08:51.240 --> 00:08:53.759 or if they had begrudgingly compromised and voted 00:08:53.759 --> 00:08:56.649 for the sitting MLA. the entire outcome of that 00:08:56.649 --> 00:08:59.190 election flips. It really does. They actively 00:08:59.190 --> 00:09:01.470 walked into the booth, looked at the options, 00:09:01.690 --> 00:09:04.389 and firmly chose none of the above. They didn't 00:09:04.389 --> 00:09:07.230 win the seat for a blank space. But by deliberately 00:09:07.230 --> 00:09:09.129 withholding their votes from the human candidates 00:09:09.129 --> 00:09:11.809 in a tight race, they completely altered the 00:09:11.809 --> 00:09:13.830 political landscape of their community. It acts 00:09:13.830 --> 00:09:17.240 as an incredible sociological mirror. Noda has 00:09:17.240 --> 00:09:19.399 been described by some analysts as a sign of 00:09:19.399 --> 00:09:22.500 India's maturing democracy. We're seeing profound 00:09:22.500 --> 00:09:25.100 reports of collective action where entire communities 00:09:25.100 --> 00:09:28.299 use Noda to democratically protest against governments 00:09:28.299 --> 00:09:30.480 that have systematically failed them. Yeah, the 00:09:30.480 --> 00:09:32.879 sources talk about those village boycotts. Right. 00:09:33.220 --> 00:09:35.799 Our sources document multiple cases of entire 00:09:35.799 --> 00:09:38.539 villages deciding to completely boycott the candidate 00:09:38.539 --> 00:09:41.700 list and vote en masse for Noda because of a 00:09:41.700 --> 00:09:44.919 consistent lack of basic infrastructure. We are 00:09:44.919 --> 00:09:46.919 talking about communities that have been promised 00:09:46.919 --> 00:09:50.200 roads and electricity for decades, and they finally 00:09:50.200 --> 00:09:52.720 decided to stop playing along. It goes beyond 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:55.639 just roads, too. Communities have used it to 00:09:55.639 --> 00:09:58.559 protest inaction over severe industrial water 00:09:58.559 --> 00:10:00.940 contamination. There are even reports of sex 00:10:00.940 --> 00:10:04.320 workers using NODA as a coordinated tool. They 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:06.360 have been trying for years to get the profession 00:10:06.360 --> 00:10:09.240 legalized so they can be protected under basic 00:10:09.240 --> 00:10:12.850 labor laws. And when they realized no political 00:10:12.850 --> 00:10:15.090 party was paying attention to their demands or 00:10:15.090 --> 00:10:17.690 offering them any systemic protection, they decided 00:10:17.690 --> 00:10:20.490 to vote for NODA. It's the ultimate silent strike. 00:10:20.690 --> 00:10:23.289 It is a brilliant utilization of the system to 00:10:23.289 --> 00:10:26.389 highlight systemic invisibility. And it echoes 00:10:26.389 --> 00:10:29.370 exactly what the Chief Justice of India, P. Sathya 00:10:29.370 --> 00:10:31.929 Sivam, said when the NODA ruling was originally 00:10:31.929 --> 00:10:34.690 passed. He noted that giving the voter the right 00:10:34.690 --> 00:10:38.090 to express disapproval is vital. And he predicted... 00:10:37.899 --> 00:10:40.419 Gradually, there will be a systemic change, and 00:10:40.419 --> 00:10:42.139 the parties will be forced to accept the will 00:10:42.139 --> 00:10:44.500 of the people and field candidates who are known 00:10:44.500 --> 00:10:46.700 for their integrity. But the sources also show 00:10:46.700 --> 00:10:49.460 us that NODA isn't just a pure idealized tool 00:10:49.460 --> 00:10:52.080 of righteous democratic protest. It's a mirror. 00:10:52.500 --> 00:10:54.519 And sometimes mirrors reflect things society 00:10:54.519 --> 00:10:56.940 might not want to see. This raises an important 00:10:56.940 --> 00:10:59.220 question about the shadow of bias in electoral 00:10:59.220 --> 00:11:01.919 mechanics. We have to look at all the sociological 00:11:01.919 --> 00:11:04.759 data objectively. The sources point out a very 00:11:04.759 --> 00:11:08.710 consistent, observable trend. Some of the highest 00:11:08.710 --> 00:11:10.990 numbers of notifotes are polled in what are known 00:11:10.990 --> 00:11:14.750 as reserved constituencies. For context, reserved 00:11:14.750 --> 00:11:17.750 constituencies are districts that, based on demographic 00:11:17.750 --> 00:11:21.289 composition, legally require the contesting candidates 00:11:21.289 --> 00:11:24.029 to be from scheduled castes or scheduled tribes. 00:11:24.730 --> 00:11:27.289 It is a system designed to ensure political representation 00:11:27.289 --> 00:11:30.340 for marginalized communities in India. The observation 00:11:30.340 --> 00:11:32.460 documented in the research is that the consistently 00:11:32.460 --> 00:11:35.519 high note of votes in these specific constituencies 00:11:35.519 --> 00:11:38.220 could be interpreted as a refusal by general 00:11:38.220 --> 00:11:40.840 category voters to cast their ballot for an SC 00:11:40.840 --> 00:11:44.080 or ST candidate. It's a sensitive issue, and 00:11:44.080 --> 00:11:46.159 looking at the sociological data from the research, 00:11:46.659 --> 00:11:49.039 it highlights a difficult reality. To be clear, 00:11:49.179 --> 00:11:51.759 we are not taking a side here. We are just impartially 00:11:51.759 --> 00:11:53.799 reporting the observations from the source material. 00:11:53.980 --> 00:11:56.440 And that material suggests a scenario where the 00:11:56.440 --> 00:11:58.440 nota button might sometimes be used to uphold 00:11:58.440 --> 00:12:01.059 deep -seated caste -based bias rather than just 00:12:01.059 --> 00:12:03.879 protesting corruption. It demonstrates the profound 00:12:03.879 --> 00:12:07.190 duality of the tool. On one hand, a surge in 00:12:07.190 --> 00:12:10.070 nota votes can be a beautiful expression of democratic 00:12:10.070 --> 00:12:12.970 dissatisfaction with corrupt options. On the 00:12:12.970 --> 00:12:15.389 other hand, the exact same mechanism can be driven 00:12:15.389 --> 00:12:17.950 by a lack of voter education, ignorance about 00:12:17.950 --> 00:12:20.750 the candidates, or an expression of societal 00:12:20.750 --> 00:12:23.990 prejudice. The tool itself is entirely neutral. 00:12:24.809 --> 00:12:27.149 The intent of the voter is what gives it its 00:12:27.149 --> 00:12:30.600 ultimate meaning in any given election. So at 00:12:30.600 --> 00:12:34.200 the national level, Noda is this complex, highly 00:12:34.200 --> 00:12:37.039 symbolic mirror, reflecting both the best and 00:12:37.039 --> 00:12:38.960 the most challenging aspects of the electorate. 00:12:39.340 --> 00:12:41.759 But at the local level, state commissions decided 00:12:41.759 --> 00:12:43.840 symbolism wasn't enough. They actually wanted 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:46.179 to give it real consequences. The local bodies 00:12:46.179 --> 00:12:48.340 are recognizing the absurdity of the original 00:12:48.340 --> 00:12:50.399 rule, where Noda could win the majority, but 00:12:50.399 --> 00:12:53.250 the human still takes power. The tipping point 00:12:53.250 --> 00:12:56.029 seems to have been in Maharashtra in 2018. The 00:12:56.029 --> 00:12:57.769 state election commission there studied local 00:12:57.769 --> 00:12:59.769 body elections and found several astonishing 00:12:59.769 --> 00:13:02.389 cases that forced their hand. To give some background, 00:13:02.549 --> 00:13:05.470 we are talking about Gram Panchayat polls, which 00:13:05.470 --> 00:13:08.070 are village council elections, and the election 00:13:08.070 --> 00:13:11.549 of the Sarpanch, the village head. The anecdotes 00:13:11.549 --> 00:13:14.490 from the sources here are incredible. In the 00:13:14.490 --> 00:13:17.129 Bori Gram Panchayat polls in the Pune district, 00:13:17.450 --> 00:13:21.429 Noda pulled in over 85 % of the votes. 85 %? 00:13:21.529 --> 00:13:24.009 And my absolute favorite example is from the 00:13:24.009 --> 00:13:27.190 Kugan Kurd village in the Nanded district. The 00:13:27.190 --> 00:13:31.090 winning Sarpanch got exactly 120 votes. Noda 00:13:31.090 --> 00:13:36.960 got 627 votes out of a total 849. The human candidate 00:13:36.960 --> 00:13:39.879 was absolutely crushed by nobody. When you are 00:13:39.879 --> 00:13:42.019 looking at results like that, where the mandate 00:13:42.019 --> 00:13:44.360 of the people is overwhelmingly to reject the 00:13:44.360 --> 00:13:47.480 candidates, seeding the person who got 120 votes 00:13:47.480 --> 00:13:50.100 undermines the entire concept of democracy. It 00:13:50.100 --> 00:13:52.580 makes a mockery of it. Exactly. So the Maharashtra 00:13:52.580 --> 00:13:54.679 State Election Commission decided the existing 00:13:54.679 --> 00:13:56.679 laws made no sense. They announced an immediate 00:13:56.679 --> 00:13:59.399 amendment. If Noda gets the maximum votes in 00:13:59.399 --> 00:14:02.039 a local election -like municipal corporations 00:14:02.039 --> 00:14:04.450 or council's re -elections will be held. They 00:14:04.450 --> 00:14:07.309 finally gave Noda teeth. It went from a suggestion 00:14:07.309 --> 00:14:10.409 box to a hard veto. It created a significant 00:14:10.409 --> 00:14:13.309 ripple effect across the country's local electoral 00:14:13.309 --> 00:14:16.009 bodies. The Haryana State Election Commission 00:14:16.009 --> 00:14:18.690 followed suit shortly after, declaring that for 00:14:18.690 --> 00:14:21.250 their municipal elections, Noda would legally 00:14:21.250 --> 00:14:23.789 be treated as a fictional candidate. Fictional 00:14:23.789 --> 00:14:26.190 candidate? Yes. If the fictional candidate wins 00:14:26.190 --> 00:14:28.629 the majority, fresh elections are conducted. 00:14:29.049 --> 00:14:32.250 And by 2022, the Delhi State Election Commission 00:14:32.250 --> 00:14:35.690 announced a similar rule. If Noda gains the highest 00:14:35.690 --> 00:14:38.750 vote, the results are paused, a report is sent 00:14:38.750 --> 00:14:41.129 up the chain, and new elections are declared 00:14:41.129 --> 00:14:44.090 for those seats. I am obsessed with the phrasing 00:14:44.090 --> 00:14:47.250 of Noda as a fictional candidate. It's like the 00:14:47.250 --> 00:14:50.029 ultimate ghost in the machine of the electoral 00:14:50.029 --> 00:14:52.809 process. Imagine running a rigorous political 00:14:52.809 --> 00:14:55.769 campaign, spending money, making speeches, and 00:14:55.769 --> 00:14:58.149 on election day, you lose to a fictional entity. 00:14:58.360 --> 00:15:00.639 It's quite a reality check. But this brings us 00:15:00.639 --> 00:15:02.899 to a massive debate highlighted in our deep dive 00:15:02.899 --> 00:15:05.980 today. The cost of democracy versus the cost 00:15:05.980 --> 00:15:08.379 of corruption. Because if we start treating Noda 00:15:08.379 --> 00:15:10.419 as a fictional candidate at the national level, 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:12.580 throwing out election results and doing them 00:15:12.580 --> 00:15:14.799 over, that gets incredibly complicated. Yeah. 00:15:15.120 --> 00:15:17.080 Why hasn't this rule been applied to the big 00:15:17.080 --> 00:15:19.879 national races? It gets highly contentious because 00:15:19.879 --> 00:15:22.340 of the sheer scale of the Indian electorate. 00:15:22.940 --> 00:15:25.120 There are many suggested improvements for Noda 00:15:25.120 --> 00:15:28.279 at the national level floating around. Advocates 00:15:28.279 --> 00:15:31.019 have suggested things like making Noda a virtual 00:15:31.019 --> 00:15:33.360 representative of the constituency if it wins 00:15:33.360 --> 00:15:35.820 the majority, leaving the seat empty for a term. 00:15:36.320 --> 00:15:38.700 Interesting. Others suggest forcing the political 00:15:38.700 --> 00:15:41.600 parties that lose to Noda to bear the financial 00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:44.000 cost of the reelection out of their own pockets 00:15:44.000 --> 00:15:46.879 to deter them from fielding bad candidates. Hitting 00:15:46.879 --> 00:15:48.759 the political parties directly in the wallet. 00:15:48.840 --> 00:15:51.179 That would definitely force a massive shift in 00:15:51.179 --> 00:15:53.179 how they select their nominees. There are even 00:15:53.179 --> 00:15:56.299 suggestions to legally bar any candidate who 00:15:56.299 --> 00:15:59.080 loses to Noda from contesting any elections for 00:15:59.080 --> 00:16:02.080 a defined period of time. But when public interest 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:06.139 litigations or PILs were filed in 2016 and 2017, 00:16:06.090 --> 00:16:09.110 asking the Supreme Court to grant Noda this absolute 00:16:09.110 --> 00:16:11.789 power to reject at the national level, the Supreme 00:16:11.789 --> 00:16:14.190 Court pushed back hard. Right. They argue that 00:16:14.190 --> 00:16:16.590 such a sweeping solution is unworkable at scale. 00:16:17.370 --> 00:16:19.850 The direct quote from the source is that holding 00:16:19.850 --> 00:16:22.570 an election in our country is a very serious 00:16:22.570 --> 00:16:25.330 and expensive business. And when you think about 00:16:25.330 --> 00:16:28.169 it, an Indian national election involves nearly 00:16:28.169 --> 00:16:31.289 a billion eligible voters, millions of polling 00:16:31.289 --> 00:16:34.919 stations, and massive security deployments. Rerunning 00:16:34.919 --> 00:16:37.299 a national election in dozens of constituencies 00:16:37.299 --> 00:16:40.080 because no to one would cost a staggering amount 00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:42.929 of money and logistical effort. The administrative 00:16:42.929 --> 00:16:45.470 burden is monumental. But that brings us to the 00:16:45.470 --> 00:16:47.049 counterargument, which is arguably one of the 00:16:47.049 --> 00:16:49.210 most powerful philosophical points in this entire 00:16:49.210 --> 00:16:51.909 discussion. Sanjay Parikh, a Supreme Court advocate 00:16:51.909 --> 00:16:53.990 who originally argued for the inclusion of NODA 00:16:53.990 --> 00:16:57.649 back in 2013, addressed this exact concern about 00:16:57.649 --> 00:17:00.129 the expense. What did he say? He stated that 00:17:00.129 --> 00:17:02.470 while people argue the implementation of a powerful 00:17:02.470 --> 00:17:05.430 NODA will drive up election expenses, a tainted 00:17:05.430 --> 00:17:08.150 candidate who indulges in corruption and malpractices 00:17:08.150 --> 00:17:11.089 is a far greater cost for the country. That is 00:17:11.089 --> 00:17:14.089 a profound way to reframe the debate. Paper, 00:17:14.529 --> 00:17:16.490 electronic machines, and polling booths cost 00:17:16.490 --> 00:17:19.650 money, but a corrupt politician costs the country 00:17:19.650 --> 00:17:22.750 its future. Parikh essentially argued that the 00:17:22.750 --> 00:17:25.089 political establishment only uses the excuse 00:17:25.089 --> 00:17:27.950 of expense because of their desire to continue 00:17:27.950 --> 00:17:30.950 in power and their greed for money, which takes 00:17:30.950 --> 00:17:33.369 prominence over actual democratic values. It 00:17:33.369 --> 00:17:36.759 is a stark framing of the issue. Are we, as a 00:17:36.759 --> 00:17:39.599 society, willing to pay the upfront financial 00:17:39.599 --> 00:17:42.619 and logistical cost of a reelection to avoid 00:17:42.619 --> 00:17:45.579 the long -term systemic cost of a corrupt leader? 00:17:46.279 --> 00:17:48.259 What is more expensive in the grand scheme of 00:17:48.259 --> 00:17:50.869 a nation's history? printing more ballots or 00:17:50.869 --> 00:17:53.190 dealing with the fallout of stolen public funds 00:17:53.190 --> 00:17:55.390 and collapsed infrastructure. So what does this 00:17:55.390 --> 00:17:57.670 all mean? We started with a blank button designed 00:17:57.670 --> 00:17:59.670 to keep a voter secret, and we've ended up in 00:17:59.670 --> 00:18:02.009 a massive philosophical debate about the actual 00:18:02.009 --> 00:18:04.349 price of a clean democracy. If we synthesize 00:18:04.349 --> 00:18:06.430 everything from our sources, NODA has undergone 00:18:06.430 --> 00:18:08.750 a remarkable evolution over the last decade. 00:18:08.849 --> 00:18:11.250 It began as a simple, highly restricted mechanism 00:18:11.250 --> 00:18:14.670 to protect voter secrecy, but voters have weaponized 00:18:14.670 --> 00:18:17.970 it, transforming it into a highly visible, quantifiable 00:18:17.970 --> 00:18:20.660 metric of the public mood. Definitely. It has 00:18:20.660 --> 00:18:23.779 become a catalyst for electoral reform, forcing 00:18:23.779 --> 00:18:26.200 local election commissions to rewrite the rules 00:18:26.200 --> 00:18:28.539 of the game and grant it the power of a fictional 00:18:28.539 --> 00:18:31.720 candidate. Yet at the same time, it is a complex 00:18:31.720 --> 00:18:34.779 mirror. It reflects the maturation of a democracy 00:18:34.779 --> 00:18:37.740 where citizens demand better, but it also reflects 00:18:37.740 --> 00:18:40.940 the deep -seated societal biases that can manipulate 00:18:40.940 --> 00:18:44.359 neutral tools. Think about the systems in your 00:18:44.359 --> 00:18:47.609 own life. How do you register dissatisfaction 00:18:47.609 --> 00:18:50.230 when you are presented with a terrible menu of 00:18:50.230 --> 00:18:52.730 options? Whether you're in a high -stakes corporate 00:18:52.730 --> 00:18:55.250 meeting, organizing your local community, or 00:18:55.250 --> 00:18:57.390 just interacting in the marketplace. When the 00:18:57.390 --> 00:18:59.049 choices in front of you are all fundamentally 00:18:59.049 --> 00:19:01.829 flawed, do you just abstain, walk away, and leave 00:19:01.829 --> 00:19:03.849 the decision to others? Or do you find a way 00:19:03.849 --> 00:19:06.349 to actively step up, push the button, and officially 00:19:06.349 --> 00:19:08.910 vote for none of the above to force the system 00:19:08.910 --> 00:19:11.509 to give you a better set of options? The journey 00:19:11.509 --> 00:19:13.710 of Noda proves that sometimes actively choosing 00:19:13.710 --> 00:19:16.069 nothing is the most aggressive and transformative 00:19:16.069 --> 00:19:18.089 choice you can make. If we connect this to the 00:19:18.089 --> 00:19:20.710 bigger picture, here's a final provocative thought 00:19:20.710 --> 00:19:23.970 to take with you. We've seen local state commissions 00:19:23.970 --> 00:19:26.509 declare Noda a fictional candidate capable of 00:19:26.509 --> 00:19:28.869 forcing re -elections and unseating politicians. 00:19:29.069 --> 00:19:32.289 Right. Imagine if that trend continues and scales 00:19:32.289 --> 00:19:34.769 up to the highest national levels like the Lok 00:19:34.769 --> 00:19:37.720 Sabha. What happens if the voters repeatedly 00:19:37.720 --> 00:19:40.099 reject every new batch of candidates a party 00:19:40.099 --> 00:19:42.339 puts forward? Could the ultimate evolution of 00:19:42.339 --> 00:19:44.460 nota lead to a scenario where parliament seats 00:19:44.460 --> 00:19:47.539 are legally left physically empty? Wow. Imagine 00:19:47.539 --> 00:19:49.720 a government forced to operate with a permanently 00:19:49.720 --> 00:19:53.940 reduced headcount. A stark visual and functional 00:19:53.940 --> 00:19:56.019 representation of the missing mandate of the 00:19:56.019 --> 00:19:58.319 people holding the entire system accountable 00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:01.700 just by their absence. A ghost parliament legally 00:20:01.700 --> 00:20:04.000 mandated by the voters. That is an incredible 00:20:04.000 --> 00:20:06.259 visual to leave on. Thank you for joining us 00:20:06.259 --> 00:20:08.759 on this deep dive. Keep questioning the options 00:20:08.759 --> 00:20:10.680 presented to you and we will catch you next time.